Roller cleaning device and image forming apparatus

Abstract

An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a pair of register rollers including a driving roller and a dust remover roller, a dust scraper to scrape off dust from the dust remover roller, a dust container box, including a lateral plate and a protrusion, to contain the dust scraped off from the dust remover roller, a roller bearing attached to the lateral plate to be immovable and to rotatably support the dust remover roller, a scraper support swingably supported by the dust container box and to support the dust scraper, and a frame to swingably support the dust container box via a protrusion support, to rotatably support the driving roller, while a rotation axis of the driving roller is fixed to the frame, and to support the roller bearing to be slidable in an in-axes direction between the driving roller and the dust remover roller.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An image forming apparatus, which is configured to convey a sheet of recording medium and form an image on the sheet in an image forming unit, comprising:
 a pair of register rollers including a driving roller, which is configured to be rotated to convey the sheet toward the image forming unit and which has a rubber-made circumferential layer, and a dust remover roller, which is configured to have a smooth circumferential surface to remove dust from the sheet being conveyed and which is arranged in a position opposite from the driving roller, the register rollers being configured to correct an orientation of the sheet being carried when an edge of the sheet contacts the register rollers when the driving roller and the dust remover roller are closest to each other; 
 a dust scraper, which is arranged to face and to be in contact with the circumferential surface of the dust remover roller to scrape off the dust from the circumferential surface of the dust remover roller; 
 a dust container box including at least a lateral plate, which is arranged orthogonally to a rotation axis of the dust remover roller, and a cylindrical-shaped pin, which is configured to protrude outwardly from the lateral plate, the dust container box being configured to have a shape of a box lo contain the dust scraped off from the circumferential surface of the dust remover roller by the dust scraper; 
 a roller bearing, which is configured to penetrate the lateral plate and to be attached to the lateral plate to be immovable with respect to the lateral plate in a direction of the rotation axis of the dust remover roller and configured to rotatably support the dust remover roller within the dust container box; 
 a scraper support, which is arranged in the dust container box and is configured to be swingably supported by the dust container box to swing about a swing axis parallel with the rotation axis of the dust remover roller, and to support the dust scraper at a position apart from the swing axis; and 
 a frame configured to support the dust container box swingably and having a box-guiding groove configured to guide the dust container box and a bearing-guide groove configured to guide the roller bearing, the box-guiding groove being formed along a first direction orthogonal to the rotation axis of the dust remover roller and being configured to support the cylindrical-shaped pin slidably along the first direction orthogonal to the rotation axis of the dust remover roller and rotatably therein, the frame being configured to rotatably support the driving roller, whilst a rotation axis of the driving roller is fixed with respect to the frame, and to support the roller bearing to be slidable along a second direction in which the dust remover roller comes closer to the driving roller in the bearing-guide groove, 
 wherein the cylindrical-shaped pin is configured to slide in the box-guiding groove in the first direction orthogonal to the rotation axis of the dust remover roller, and the dust container box is configured to rotate about the cylindrical-shaped pin such that, when the roller bearing slides in the bearing-guiding groove in the second direction in which the dust remover roller comes closer to the driving roller, the cylindrical-shaped pin slides in the box-guiding groove in the first direction orthogonal to the rotation axis of the dust remover roller and the dust container box rotates about the cylindrical-shaped pin. 
 
     
     
       2. The image forming apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising an urging member, which is configured to urge the scraper support toward the dust remover roller to have the dust scraper in contact with the circumferential surface of the dust remover roller and is arranged in a position between the dust container box and the scraper support. 
     
     
       3. The image forming apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the driving roller, the dust remover roller, and the dust scraper are configured to have forms, which correspond to a width of a maximum-allowable sized sheet of recording medium for the image forming apparatus. 
     
     
       4. An image forming apparatus, which is configured to convey a sheet of recording medium and form an image on the sheet in an image forming unit, comprising:
 a pair of register rollers including a driving roller, which is configured to be rotated to convey the sheet toward the image forming unit and which has a rubber-made circumferential layer, and a dust remover roller, which is configured to have a smooth circumferential surface to remove dust from the sheet being conveyed and which is arranged in a position opposite from the driving roller, the register rollers being configured to correct an orientation of the sheet being carried when an edge of the sheet contacts the register rollers when the driving roller and the dust remover are closest to each other; 
 a dust scraper, which is arranged to face and to be in contact with the circumferential surface of the dust remover roller to scrape off the dust from the circumferential surface of the dust remover roller; 
 a dust container box including at least a lateral plate, which is arranged orthogonally to a rotation axis of the dust remover roller, and a protrusion, which is configured to protrude outwardly along a direction of the rotation axis of the dust remover roller from the lateral plate, the dust container box being configured to have a shape of a box to contain the dust scraped off from the circumferential surface of the dust remover roller by the dust scraper; 
 a roller bearing, which is configured to penetrate the lateral plate and to be attached to the lateral plate to be immovable with respect to the lateral plate in the direction of the rotation axis of the dust remover roller and configured to rotatably support the dust remover roller within the dust container box; 
 a scraper support, which is arranged in the dust container box and is configured to be swingably supported by the dust container box to swing about a swing axis parallel with the rotation axis of the dust remover roller, and to support the dust scraper at a position apart from the swing axis; and 
 a frame configured to swingably support the dust container box via a protrusion support, which supports the protrusion of the dust container box slidably along a first direction orthogonal to the rotation axis of the dust remover roller and rotatably therein, the frame being configured to rotatably support the driving roller, whilst a rotation axis of the driving roller is fixed with respect to the frame, and to support the roller bearing to be slidable in a bearing-guiding groove configured to guide the roller bearing along a second direction in which the dust remover roller comes closer to the driving roller, 
 wherein the protrusion is configured to slide in the protrusion support in the first direction orthogonal to the rotation axis of the dust remover roller, and the dust container box is configured to rotate about the protrusion such that, when the roller bearing slides in the bearing-guiding groove in the second direction in which the dust remover roller comes closer to the driving roller, the protrusion slides in the protrusion support in the first direction orthogonal to the rotation axis of the dust remover roller and the dust container box rotates about the protrusion. 
 
     
     
       5. The image forming apparatus according to  claim 4 , wherein the protrusion in the dust container box is a cylindrical-shaped pin; and wherein the protrusion support is a groove, which is formed along the first direction orthogonal to the rotation axis of the dust remover roller and is configured to support the cylindrical-shaped pin slidably and rotatably therein. 
     
     
       6. The image forming apparatus according to  claim 4 , further comprising an urging member, which is configured to urge the scraper support toward the dust remover roller to have the dust scraper in contact with the circumferential surface of the dust remover roller and is arranged in a position between the dust container box and the scraper support. 
     
     
       7. The image forming apparatus according to  claim 4 , wherein the driving roller, the dust remover roller, and the dust scraper are configured to have forms, which correspond to a width of a maximum-allowable sized sheet of recording medium for the image forming apparatus.